I think Axel’s a brilliant editor. Really. I think I’ve bought books solely because he was the editor on them previously. But, he doesn’t know what he’s doing being EIC. It’s a mess. And the likes of Brevoort whispering sweet nothings in his ear is not helping.

they’re in Act 2 of a multi-year story arc. That they’ve deliberately replaced all their A list characters to they can bring them back in a third act return.

Oh damn, that could so easily backfire on them.

Not only do I think the fans no longer want Marvel’s big multi-year arc approach, but while there’s been loud protests against diversity, that same diversity has got Marvel new fans too. So what happens when those new fans see their favourite characters shuffled off-stage as part of that ‘grand return’? Probably not happy.

I asked him if he was going to continue the ongoing narrative structure that Marvel has been built on this last few years and he said Yes like I’d asked him if he going to continue breathing. Like why would they do anything different?

I found the offices about as I had expected them. Axel was a pleasure to chat with and has some real insight into the business and creators.

I really want him and Marvel to succeed. Not just for their own sake but they are a major player in the whole comic industry. If they fail, it will take a lot of others with them.

I do wish they would renew their focus on creators. I think they are the lifeblood of this industry no matter what. The characters are great and have stood the test of time but without new blood to reinvigorate them every so often they wither.

Yeah but the last issue shipped several months late, it was supposed to end around October 2015 iirc.

Was it originally meant to double ship? It started in May 2015 with 8 planned issues. It was later extended to 9.

I read it for the first time last week and actually really enjoyed it. I’m surprised they didn’t either put all the pieces in place at the end like with previous similar type stories or use it as a Crisis-like event to completely restart things.

I’m not sure I would have enjoyed it as much reading it as it shipped and in place of everything in their line.

We all jumped on at issue 168 or whatever unless we are as old as Miqque.

But if we want to go back and find the previous issue it will be 9 or something like that.

There’s a range of folk on here who go from not reading comics at all to following closely.

I fit in the bracket of been ordering from Previews for about 10 years, and following all the publishers closely for longer than that.

In this month’s Previews it’s difficult to tell what books have a new creative team, where the jumping on points are, where the new creative teams are or if they’ve just started, why spider man with miles morales is on issue 2 hindered and 90 odd and why chip zdarkskys book is at fuck knows whatever issue it’s at.

Ya. It was easier when they at least maintained the classic numbering along with the new number. They’ve put out these numbering guides as seen below for a lot of the books but fuck that’s crazy if every book requires something this complex.